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To write well is not a singular ability; it utilizes critical thinking, creativity, and a feeling for language. An examination of a number of pieces of writing by elementary school pupils shows that some are highly imaginative while others are informative reports, simple statements of events, colorful descriptions, or various forms of poetry. Style is generally informal and relaxed, as it relates closely to speech and implies that the reader or listener is interested in what is being presented. As the pupil becomes more aware of the English language and its syntactical structure, this knowledge can help give form to ideas. The question naturally arises whether the study of grammar can help improve writing. Over the past decade attempts to prove that the study of grammar can improve writing were not significant, but research on generative grammar instruction increased the proportion of well-formed sentences and the complexity of sentence patterns. More recently, a study reported that sentence-combining practices have a favorable effect on the writing skills of students. (RB)

This University of Nebraska study proposed to discover (1) the types of changes occurring in syntax as children mature, (2) the age at which children begin to use certain structures in their writing, (3) the differences in syntax between children's and adult's writing, (4) the relationship between syntactic patterns and intellectual ability, and (5) the differences between the syntax of children studying the Nebraska English Curriculum materials and that of children in traditional language arts programs. A multi-level instrument of syntactic analysis, similar on the first level to the Strickland instrument, was developed and used over a 3-year period to analyze the writing of over 13,000 sentences from 2,000 compositions. Results indicated that children move steadily toward the syntactic model of the adult writer as they grow older; that a statistically significant difference is evident between high, middle, and low I.Q. groups in their use of a variety of syntactic structures; and that children in programs using the Nebraska Project English curriculum progress toward the adult model more rapidly than do children in traditional programs. (This document summarizes material reported in "The Nebraska Study of the Syntax of Children's Writing," 3 vols., The Univ. of Nebraska, 1967. See ED 013 814, ED 013 815, and ED 013 816.) (JS)

THE THIRD PART OF THE NEBRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CENTER'S ANALYSIS OF THE SYNTAX OF CHILDREN'S WRITING FOCUSED UPON (1) HOW THE SYNTAX OF THIRD- AND SIXTH-GRADERS COMPARED WITH THAT OF PROFESSIONAL WRITERS, (2) WHETHER OR NOT THE RATE OF GROWTH IN CERTAIN SYNTACTIC SKILLS VARIED SIGNIFICANTLY AMONG GROUPS OF CHILDREN IN VARIOUS LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAMS, (3) WHETHER OR NOT CHILDREN WHO INITIALLY DISPLAYED ADVANCED SYNTACTIC SKILLS ALSO SURPASSED THEIR PEERS IN PROGRESS RATE, AND (4) WHETHER OR NOT GIRLS' WRITTEN SYNTAX DIFFERED FROM THAT OF BOYS. THE COMPOSITIONS ANALYZED WERE WRITTEN BY 180 CHILDREN IN THREE LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAMS--(A) AN INTENSIVE-TREATMENT PROGRAM AND (B) A MODERATE-TREATMENT PROGRAM, BOTH BASED UPON THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM, AND (C) A CONTROL PROGRAM CONTAINING NO "NEBRASKA" UNITS. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS WERE THE REPRESENTATION OF ONLY MIDDLE-CLASS STUDENTS OF LINCOLN AND OMAHA SCHOOLS, THE SELECTION OF THE NEBRASKA PROGRAM TO BE TAUGHT, AND THE USE OF TEACHERS IN PROGRAM A WHO WERE BETTER TRAINED IN THIS CURRICULUM THAN THOSE IN PROGRAM B. THE STUDY REVEALED THAT (1) THE SYNTAX OF HIGH-I.Q. CHILDREN AND THE SENTENCE TYPES OF LOW-I.Q. CHILDREN CAME CLOSEST TO THE "PROFESSIONAL" STANDARDS, (2) THE INTENSIVE-TREATMENT PROGRAM AT BOTH GRADE LEVELS YIELDED THE GREATEST DIVIDENDS IN THE RATE OF GROWTH OF SYNTACTIC SKILLS, (3) A HIGH NEGATIVE CORRELATION EXISTED BETWEEN PRE-TREATMENT SYNTACTIC PERFORMANCE AND IN-TREATMENT SYNTACTIC GROWTH, AND (4) GIRLS' SYNTACTIC SKILLS CONSISTENTLY OUTRANKED THAT OF BOYS. (RD)

THE SECOND PHASE OF THE SYNTAX STUDY OF CHILDREN'S WRITING, CONDUCTED BY THE NEBRASKA CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT CENTER, CONCENTRATED ON DISCOVERING AND EVALUATING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CONTROL GROUPS WHICH DID NOT USE THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM AND EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS WHICH DID. ANSWERS WERE SOUGHT TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS--(1) HOW DOES THE SYNTAX OF THE CHILDREN'S WRITING CHANGE AS THEY MATURE. (2) AT WHAT AGE DO THE CHILDREN BEGIN USING VARIOUS STRUCTURES. (3) HOW DOES THEIR SYNTAX DIFFER FROM THAT OF ADULTS. (4) WHAT RELATIONSHIP EXISTS BETWEEN A CHILD'S BACKGROUND AND HIS USE OF SYNTACTIC PATTERNS. (5) IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE SYNTAX OF CHILDREN INVOLVED IN THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM AND OF THOSE IN TRADITIONAL LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAMS. THE POPULATION SAMPLE WAS COMPOSED OF 500 CONTROL AND 250 EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS IN GRADES TWO THROUGH SIX IN TEN NEBRASKA SCHOOLS. THE FIRST FIVE SENTENCES IN EACH CHILD'S COMPOSITION AND A 500-SENTENCE SAMPLE FROM THE WRITINGS OF 25 MAJOR MODERN AMERICAN WRITERS OF PROSE FICTION PROVIDED THE DATA FOR ANALYSIS. SOME OF THE FINDINGS WERE--(1) THE SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT PATTERN DECREASED IN THE CHILDREN'S WRITTEN LANGUAGE AS THEY MATURED, (2) THE USE OF THE NEBRASKA ENGLISH CURRICULUM ENABLED THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS TO APPROACH CRITERIA INFERRED FROM THE WRITINGS OF PROFESSIONALS, AND (3) THE SYNTACTIC PATTERN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SECOND- AND SIXTH-GRADERS WAS GREATER THAN THAT BETWEEN SIXTH-GRADERS AND PROFESSIONALS. (RD)

This project seeking to develop sound methodological research techniques for second-language is based on an initial pilot study which (1) identified and classifies the utterances of a child learning Spanish as a second language, and (2) determines whether there are any significant trends in the observed order of learning of kernels and transformed sentences. During a second year of research six children between five and six-and-a-half participated in an expanded version of the experiment concerning language acquisition which concentrated on the description and classification of the linguistic utterances produced by the subjects. Major chapters include: (1) introduction, (2) research design, (3) noun phrase, (4) verb phrase, (5) imperative, (6) interrogative, (7) sentence compounding and embedding, and (8) conclusions and implications. A bibliography and a list of linguistic diagrams are included. (RL)

A model for helping classroom teachers understand and evaluate the growth of children in oral and written compositions is presented. The recommended procedure is centered around T-unit analysis. The following sequence is one possible way the T-unit analysis procedure might be used by an elementary school teacher: (1) Divide all the sentences of a pupil's composition into T-units; (2) Divide the total number of words in the composition by the total number of T-units, which will reveal the average length of the pupil's T units; (3) Analyze each sentence in the composition in terms of the number of T-units, number of words per T-unit, ways in which subordination and coordination are indicated, means for the development of characterization, nominals, adverbials and any other measures which affect T-unit length; (4) Prepare a summary outline based on the analysis of sentences including T-unit measures, features of the pupil's syntax, methods utilized for developing characterizations, plot structure analysis, and story interpretation; and (5) Write an evaluation based on the data obtained in steps 1 to 4. This method is illustrated with dictated oral compositions of two grade 1 students. The chief benefit of this procedure is the insights it gives the teacher as to the syntactic performance of his pupils. (Author/DB)

The project described in this report examines the development of Swedish-speaking children's syntax from the appearance of the first two-work sentences until all the basic syntactical rules are mastered. The procedures and techniques for the experiment are described and preliminary findings are discussed. Children practice language by repeating an utterance several times, first single words and later whole sentences. Imitation plays a great part in linguistic development. The most advanced children have parents who talk a great deal with (not to) their children and who listen to them, trying to understand what they say. These parents often "translate" (not correct) and develop what their children say in order to check that they are on line with each other. Such translations or"imitations with expansion" made by the parent seem to be of great importance to strenghthen the right structural patterns. (Author/VM)

This paper reports on a study of the efficiency of interactive tasks at eliciting targeted morpho-syntactic structures from child speakers of English as a Second Language (ESL). Two groups of subjects between 7 and 10 years of age were examined, one group with various first language backgrounds, and a second which used Spanish as their first language. Both groups had varying degrees of exposure to English. Data for the first group were gathered through an audiotaped conversational interview, while data for the second group were gathered through a task-based elicitation procedure. The tasks included picture recognition, story completion, informal interview, picture sequencing, picture differences, and peer meeting. The results indicated that tasks were more efficient than interviews in eliciting targeted morpho-syntactic structures with child speakers of ESL and that the tasks were successful in targeting the structures for which they were designed. (MDM)

This paper reports on a study of the efficiency of interactive tasks at eliciting targeted morpho-syntactic structures from child speakers of English as a Second Language (ESL). Two groups of subjects between 7 and 10 years of age were examined, one group with various first language backgrounds, and a second which used Spanish as their first language. Both groups had varying degrees of exposure to English. Data for the first group were gathered through an audiotaped conversational interview, while data for the second group were gathered through a task-based elicitation procedure. The tasks included picture recognition, story completion, informal interview, picture sequencing, picture differences, and peer meeting. The results indicated that tasks were more efficient than interviews in eliciting targeted morpho-syntactic structures with child speakers of ESL and that the tasks were successful in targeting the structures for which they were designed. (MDM)

This paper examines the oral language resources that enhance children's reading and comprehension processes. Using data from a study of 16 children, the microanalysis of the three more successful readers, identified salient factors from the individual children's learning profiles that were observed as associated with their positive comprehension outcomes. The results indicate vocabulary knowledge, syntactic competence and an understanding of narrative grammar as important to the concurrent development of children's oral language abilities commensurate with text reading. The study emphasises the facilitative role of oral language to early reading acquisition processes, the need for teachers' detailed knowledge of children's oral language competencies and improved access to assessment tools that capture a range of complex language skills to inform classroom practice.

The objectives of the research reported here were (1) to develop and test the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) technique, a method for quantifying the increasing use of syntactic and morphological structures in the spontaneous speech of children between the ages of three and seven, (2) to establish age norms for syntactic and morphological mastery against which the spontaneous speech of atypical children could be compared, (3) to evaluate a procedure for obtaining a reliable sample of children's spontaneous speech which could be easily used in a school or clinical setting, and (4) to provide information on the normal developmental order of grammatical structures, which could be a guideline for remedial training of children with language problems. The author feels that the DSS technique would be appropriate in establishing accurate baselines for research in language development and in comparing the relative effectiveness of various teaching methods. Its particular value is seen to lie in the fact that it, in contrast to other approaches, assesses the "end product" of language learning, the child's actual performance in verbal communication with the adult world. (Author/FWB)

The objectives of the research reported here were (1) to develop and test the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) technique, a method for quantifying the increasing use of syntactic and morphological structures in the spontaneous speech of children between the ages of three and seven, (2) to establish age norms for syntactic and morphological mastery against which the spontaneous speech of atypical children could be compared, (3) to evaluate a procedure for obtaining a reliable sample of children's spontaneous speech which could be easily used in a school or clinical setting, and (4) to provide information on the normal developmental order of grammatical structures, which could be a guideline for remedial training of children with language problems. The author feels that the DSS technique would be appropriate in establishing accurate baselines for research in language development and in comparing the relative effectiveness of various teaching methods. Its particular value is seen to lie in the fact that it, in contrast to other approaches, assesses the "end product" of language learning, the child's actual performance in verbal communication with the adult world. (Author/FWB)